


8. chameleons

by piggy09



Series: The Sestre Daily Drabble Project [136]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 17:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8543149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09
Summary: They always forget to lock the windows. The new girl’s room is no exception; Helena only has to use an eensy-weensy bit of her strength to pry the window open and crawl inside. She has to fold up her wings to do it, though.





	

They bring the latest girl to headquarters (aich-cue, that’s what Helena is supposed to call it, but aich-cue is a silly name for anything) in handcuffs. So she isn’t one of the strong ones; for the strong ones they use stronger chains. Helena floats outside the window and stares at the new girl to try and figure out which one she is. She could be a fast one, like Cosima. Or she could have fire, like Rachel. Or maybe she _is_ a strong one and she’s just playing nice. Or maybe she’s something else. Helena is one of the ones that’s something else, and she likes it when she’s not alone.

The girl makes eye contact with Helena outside the window. Her own eyes go very wide, and then – poof! – she’s gone.

Helena smiles so big that she forgets to flap her wings. She plummets like a stone for a few feet until she remembers how to flap again.

She’s one of the other ones. She’s going to be _interesting_.

* * *

They always forget to lock the windows. The new girl’s room is no exception; Helena only has to use an eensy-weensy bit of her strength to pry the window open and crawl inside. She has to fold up her wings to do it, though.

The girl is sitting on the bed, leg jumping up and down so fast that it makes her whole body shake. Parts of her keep vanishing, in and out and in again; every time it happens her leg twitches faster, and another part vanishes, and it’s a bad cycle.

“Hello,” Helena says. “Can you make other things disappear too, or just you?”

Poof! She’s gone. Nothing there anymore. Helena leaps off the ground (she hates the ground) and flutters her way over. She flails her hand around and there’s a muffled “ow” when she accidentally backhands the new girl in the face. And she’s back.

“Get your bloody hand out of my bloody face, you bloody freak,” says the new girl succinctly. Helena gets her bloody hand out of her bloody face.

“You made your clothes vanish too,” she says, settling her legs so she’s floating cross-legged slightly above the bed. “Do they have to be touching you? If I was touching you could you make me vanish?”

“God, would you just – _go away_ ,” the new girl spits at her. “They dragged me here and they told me it’s a bloody opportunity but I know it’s not, it’s a prison. We’re all bloody freaks and they want to keep us locked up.”

“The locks are bad, though,” Helena says thoughtfully. “I got into your room. I do not think they care very much if you are locked away. They want to keep us safe.”

“Also,” she says, grinning, “they give us pudding on Wednesdays.”

She gets nothing in response except the flicker and vanish of a few strands of hair.

“I’m Helena,” she says, because this girl won’t tell her how she’s doing that and Helena isn’t sure if she even knows.

“Don’t care.”

“If you tell me your name,” Helena says, “I can stop calling you new girl. In my brain.” She tilts her head. “If you don’t tell me your name I can give you a name. Poof! Or Vanish. Or Bye-Bye.”

“Sarah,” says Poof! sourly. “Get out of my room.”

Helena stops flapping. She lands with a bounce on Sarah’s bed. “I have been here for…” she counts on her fingers “seven years. I was lonely when I came. I can help.”

“Jesus Christ,” Sarah says, looking uncomfortable. “Seven years?”

“Yes.”

“You’re institutionalized.”

Helena tilts her head the other way. “What is this.”

“Means you’re fine stayin’ here, just ‘cause they gave you – what – _pudding?_ No way. I’m gettin’ out of here. Soon as they take their eyes off me for a _second_ I’m gone.”

Helena’s face deflates a little bit. “Stay until Wednesday, yes?”

Sarah’s brow furrows and she gives Helena a skeptical look.

“For the pudding,” Helena says. Her wings arch excitedly; her feathers rustle.

“No promises,” Sarah says absentmindedly. Her eyes have jumped to Helena’s wings, and – despite everything she’s said, every sour thing, there is something hopeful and excited in her face. Helena used to show the other children her wings, when she thought they wouldn’t try to pull out her feathers. Their faces looked like that. She missed children. Nobody here is really a child anymore.

“You can touch them, if you want,” she says.

Sarah’s gaze snaps away. “No thanks,” she says, and three of the fingers on her left hand vanish. Helena reaches over and taps the space where they should be, and they’re there. They flicker back when her fingers brush them.

“There,” she says, “all better,” and she smiles.

Sarah looks like she knows it’s a mistake, but: she smiles back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please kudos + comment if you enjoyed! :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [317\. shadow play](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8552509) by [piggy09](https://archiveofourown.org/users/piggy09/pseuds/piggy09)




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